Aaron Judge officially reported to Yankees spring training this week, as did many across the league to their respected teams, but for some, it is only a brief stop before the World Baseball Classic gets underway next month.
For Judge, he will be staying put at Yankees camp, and while he hopes he will someday get a chance to represent the United States at the event, he didn’t feel 2023 was the right year to do that.
“It would be an honor to represent my country and play in that," Judge told FOX Sports’ Deesha Thosar. “But my main goal is what I can do here in New York and what I can do to bring a championship back here. I think, especially after signing a nine-year contract, for me, priorities are New York. Maybe four years down the road, hopefully I can still make the team and get an opportunity to play. But right now for me, my focus is here.”
Judge inked a $360 million contract to return to the Yanks this offseason, and was immediately named the team’s first captain since Derek Jeter. With plenty of promising young prospects also arriving at camp, some of them considered to be future cornerstones for the franchise that Judge will be tasked with leading, the new captain thought it was best that he remain with the Yankees and start his captaincy off on the right foot.
“My focus is on New York and especially being named captain, I didn’t want to miss any time at spring training,” Judge told Thosar. “There’s so many young guys here that I’ve only seen on Twitter, or the prospect reports. I want to get a chance to be around these young guys and get to know them and kind of show them what we do here.”
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